How To Add Keywords To Google My Business

Local search engine optimization (SEO) must be a part of your content marketing strategy. To support that effort, you need to know how to add keywords to Google My Business.

Keep in mind that nearly half of all Google searches are local. That’s why maximizing this aspect of your local SEO can be a game-changer.

If you need to learn the process, we’ll show you what to do.

Why Do You Need To Know How To Add Keywords To Google My Business?

Tackling local SEO this way opens up real opportunities for capturing additional market share:

• Customers are 2.7 times more likely to view a business as reputable when there is a complete profile on Google My Business (aka Google Business Profile.)
• Almost a third of SEO marketers consider the Google My Business profile the most important ranking factor for Google Map Pack.
• 76% of consumers who search for a business or item nearby on their phones will visit a business within a day.

However, the kicker is that only 42% of companies optimize local search. They likely don’t know how to add keywords to Google Business Profile accounts. If you start now, you can get the jump on most of your local competition. Keep it up, and you’ll reap the long-term rewards of good SEO by ranking higher on search engine results pages (SERPs).

How Do You Add SEO to a Google Business Profile With Keywords?

Add SEO to Google My Business by putting keywords in the sections for your business category, business description, product or service descriptions, business attributes, and posts. Another ideal spot for keywords is when responding to online questions.

Let’s take a closer look at each of these to master adding keywords to Google My Business.

Business Category

List yourself in the appropriate primary category, which is automatically going to link you with seed keywords. These aren’t going to do a lot for your SEO on their own. Still, they put you on the right track to make sure your listing shows up to your target audience.

You can also choose up to nine additional categories. These help you refine your audience. For example, “Lawyer” is accurate for a law firm. If you want to drive more traffic to your site from car accident victims, however, you’re going to want “Auto accident lawyer” to be high on the Additional Categories list. Also, consider listing which niches are most profitable and get the highest volume.

Business Description

Use fitting keywords in your business description, but be concise and specific with your wording. While creativity is great, you don’t want to confuse anyone about what you do with cryptic language. A poorly written description might even be why you’re not showing up on Google for relevant searches.

Importantly, how you add keywords to your Google My Business profile description must flow well and sound natural. An easy way to do this is to think of what phrases your target audience would use in a voice search on a phone. The footwear store might include “top brands of men’s athletic shoes.” A pastry shop could use “skilled baker” or “local treats.”

Insert keywords early into your business description. The section has a limit of 750 characters. However, the results page will initially only show the first 250. You need to make sure what you say in that first third of your description is clear enough to get a person to go further. Get your keywords in there and mention key products and services.

Additionally, you should also:

• Mention the primary business category again
• Talk about your high-value products and services
• Mention your target service area
• State a unique selling proposition that makes you stand out from the competition

Another way to grab attention is to mention a specific company fact or achievement. For example, discuss how many customers you’ve served or how long you’ve been in business. However, don’t mention promotions or specials in this section, as Google forbids it. They might even ban your profile.

Product and Service Descriptions

The Edit Products tab is another smart way to add keywords to Google My Business. This lets you specify the types of products even further. Provide an image there, and then use keywords in the text description.

If you’re a business in a category that offers services, you’ll have an Edit Services button while setting up your profile. You’ll select from preexisting options, but you can also create custom fields. Remember to use brief, descriptive, and natural terms that include keywords here as well.

Business Attributes

Your attributes are brief descriptions of what your business does or has, including:

• Accessibility (such as for wheelchairs)
• Amenities (such as Wi-Fi)
• Health and safety highlights (like no-contact delivery)
• Spoken languages 
• Pickup and delivery options (like same-day delivery)

These are preset options you check a button for. While you can’t customize them, these are things customers search for that can put you toward the top of the list when you’ve figured out how to add keywords to Google My Business.

Posts

Google My Business lets you create posts for “What’s New,” “Offers,” and “Events.” Use the same strategy here as you would with social media and keep it short. The best posts tend to be between 80-100 characters. As with other types of content, keywords should show up early in the text.

Again, like social media, this strategy is most effective when it’s frequent and consistent. Fresh posts increase the odds that you will get higher in search results for the specific keywords therein.

Questions and Answers

Being quick to answer questions is more than just a way to demonstrate you offer a good customer experience. It can also boost your local SEO. Add keywords to this section when responding to queries.

Just be sure your usage is natural and fits the question. A clunky or wordy response is going to sound like AI wrote it, negatively impacting how potential customers and the Google algorithm see you.

Get Expert Help With Adding Keywords To Google My Business

If you want to stay on top of how to add keywords to a Google My Business profile, work with our local SEO experts at BKA. We’ll guide you to getting lots of views online, as well as handle the heavy lifting of content marketing with our SEO-managed services so you can focus on running your business.